


finally ready (to be here)

by LiveLaughLovex



Category: Quantico (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Ignores Post-Graduation Storyline, Not Post-Graduation Compliant, Post-Season/Series 01
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-15
Updated: 2019-03-15
Packaged: 2019-11-18 09:04:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18117629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiveLaughLovex/pseuds/LiveLaughLovex
Summary: A year passed before Special Agent Alexandra Parrish finally got around to picking up the phone and calling Ryan Booth.





	finally ready (to be here)

**Author's Note:**

> It's been a long year  
> And everyone around me's disappeared  
> It's been a long year  
> And all this mess around me's finally cleared  
> So can I have a moment just to say hello  
> Can you let your anger go?  
> It's been a long year  
> And I'm finally ready to be here...
> 
> \- Been a Long Day, Rosi Golan

_New York City, NY  
May 2017_

Special Agent Alexandra Parrish woke to the sound of a ringing phone. She blinked blearily and stared at her bedroom ceiling for several seconds before realizing just what it was that’d disrupted her peaceful slumber. Some days, she really hated that criminals didn’t work nine-to-five. Or, actually, that they worked at all.

“Parrish,” she grumbled into the mouthpiece, kicking aside the covers and padding toward the bathroom. “Saito, I hope you do know it’s only six o’clock in the morning,” she groaned after a quick glance at Caller ID.

“I do,” Special Agent Hana Saito assured her. “And I’m sorry to wake you, but we need you at the office _now_.”

“Why?” Alex questioned, yanking a brush through her tangled curls with her free hand.

“You know the Gaetano crime family?”

“Yeah,” Alex sighed, blinking at her reflection in the mirror. “What about them?”

“Someone took out Giovanni Gaetano last night.”

Well, that certainly woke her up faster than coffee ever could. “Someone killed Golden Boy Gaetano? Are you serious?”

“Yeah, and Daddy’s pissed, which means Brooklyn will be a war zone before sundown.”

Alex sighed, running a hand through her hair. “All right. I’ll be there in half an hour, okay?”

“Sooner would be better,” Saito warned her cryptically before ending the call.

Alex arrived in twenty-two minutes. The look of relief on Saito’s face would have been comical in literally any other situation.

“Can I ask a question? This is a murder case, right? Why’d the FBI catch it?” Alex asked her partner as they made their way toward the other members of the Violent Crimes Task Force gathered in the bullpen.

“Because we’ve been tracking down the Gaetano family for years now. We have better intel about the family than NYPD does. And, uh, there’s a possibility this wasn’t just a murder. It might’ve been a hate crime.” Saito shrugged when Alex shot her a curious look. “There were a few witnesses who reported hearing the assailants use homophobic slurs during the attack.”

Alex shook her head disbelievingly. “The twenty-first century we’re living in, is it? I’ve got that right?”

“Yup.” Saito sighed. “Little sister was the one to find him. Aurora. She’s sixteen.”

“Poor kid,” Alex murmured.

“Yeah. Callaghan wants us to be the ones to talk to her. Something about being able to get through to her better than the boys.”

Alex glanced around curiously. “Speaking of the boys, where are they?”

“They’re looking into the suspects. _Hermanos de Sangre_ ,” Saito explained. “Rodriguez grew up with a few of them, still knows the neighborhood. He took McBride with him as backup.”

Alex nodded. “All right. Well, where does Aurora Gaetano live?”

“With her parents in Bay Ridge,” Saito reported, grabbing her jacket and following Alex to the elevator. “Hey, since we’re already going to be in Brooklyn, we should stop by that diner for breakfast.”

“I don’t know if my body’s ready for that many calories so early in the morning,” Alex said. “Maybe for lunch, if we’re still in the area. I’ll even pay.”

“Oh, but I wanted something else for lunch,” Saito complained.

“How about this. You help me solve this murder – which is our job – and I’ll let you pick where we go for lunch,” Alex offered. “That work for you?”

“I’m picking, you’re buying?” Saito repeated. “Yup, works great for me. Let’s go.”

Alex laughed under her breath. “Cheapskate,” she muttered, following her friend into their waiting elevator car.

 

-o-o-o-o-

 

“Hey,” Special Agent Kara Callaghan greeted Alex and Saito when they returned from their interview with the victim’s younger sister. “How’d it go with Aurora Gaetano?”

“I think we would’ve had better luck getting a brick wall to talk to us,” Saito quipped. “Kid’s following the same code of honor as her brother and her fathers, which basically means she’s not going to tell us anything, even if it means putting away the bastard who murdered her big brother.”

“Senior trained her on what to say before we even got there, Boss. She wanted to talk to us, I could tell, but he’s got her thinking that this is what’s best.” Alex shrugged. “She’s a kid. We won’t be able to get through to her as long as that family’s in her ear.”

“Well, she’s sixteen. We can’t interview her without a parent or guardian present.” Callaghan caught her bottom lip between her teeth. “We’ll figure something out,” she promised after a few moments’ worth of contemplation. “What about the homophobic slurs several witnesses reported hearing? Did she say anything when you asked about those?”

“Only that her brother wasn’t gay, and we were trying to bring shame to the memory of a dead man.” Alex shrugged when Callaghan shot her a disbelieving look. “You know what the Gaetano family’s like, Boss. They’re still stuck in the past century.”

Callaghan shook her head. “All right. Anything else?”

“Yeah. Aurora said something about a Felipe Barrera having it out for Giovanni. We ran the name. He’s been running with the _Hermanos_ since he was fifteen, has been steadily rising up through the ranks ever since. No current address, but we were able to hunt down his, uh, lady friend.” Saito cleared her throat. “Girl by the name of Viviana Lopez, twenty-three. Lives in the Projects.”

“Well, looks like you get to go interview the girlfriend of a gangbanger. Aren’t your lives so glamorous?” Callaghan smirked at them both. “Get out of here. Call with anything you might get out of her,” the blonde ordered before heading back to her office.

Saito groaned, glancing over at Alex. “I barely made it through interviewing Aurora Gaetano without slapping her across the face, and part of what held me back was the fact that she was sixteen,” she hissed as the two of them made their way back to the elevator. “I do not know if I will make it through being sassed by _another_ criminal-adjacent kid today, Parrish.”

“You do realize that this kid is only six years younger than you, right?” Alex asked, amused. “Look,” she sighed when Saito simply shot her an unimpressed glare, “it’ll be around ten by the time we wrap things up with Lopez. We can go to lunch right after, all right? I’ll foot the bill, like I promised, but only if you don’t punch this woman.”

 “Can we go to the Thai place?” Saito asked hopefully.

“The one in Brooklyn that’s been shut down by the Health Department three times?”

“Yeah, in a decade,” Saito scoffed. “That’s not even that often, comparatively.”

“I don’t care about comparatively, I care about the fact that it was shut down at all. I am a woman of my word, though, and I did promise you could pick, so.” Alex sighed. “Sure. If I get food poisoning, though, you’re footing the hospital bill.”

“Fair enough,” Saito agreed.

 

-o-o-o-o-

 

“ _Why_ did we think that would work?” Saito asked as they left Viviana Lopez’s apartment. “We’re leaving with more information than we had when we showed up, I think. _How_?”

“Well, she’s his _lady friend_ , as you so eloquently put it,” Alex laughed, turning the key in the ignition and putting the car in Drive. “I don’t think she’d benefit much if he went to prison.”

“Still,” Saito sighed. “We believe in basic human decency, but it’s not basic _or_ common. Not anymore.”

“Hey, _you_ believe in basic human decency,” Alex corrected. “ _I_ believe that who people are when they’re forced between a rock and a hard place is who they are in general.”

“Oh, right, yeah, you’re the pessimist of this partnership. Sorry, I forgot.” Saito smirked over at her. “Can we _please_ go to the Thai place now?”

“It’s nine o’clock in the morning,” Alex pointed out incredulously.

“Yeah, but it’s a 24/7 joint,” Saito informed her. “Also, it’s in Brooklyn. It’ll take us a while to get there.”

“Do you ever think about anything other than food, Saito?” Alex asked, amused.

“Not really,” her partner admitted. “Gabriel doesn’t have an issue with it.”

“Gabriel is completely in love with you. He has to think everything about you is perfect.”

“That’s not true!” Saito defended with a laugh. “What, is that what your last boyfriend was like?”

“No,” Alex denied, glancing over at her friend with a sad smile. “No, Ryan was always very aware of my flaws. He just – I don’t know, loved me despite them, I guess.”

“Yeah,” Saito murmured. “Well, that’s usually the way it works.” She hesitated for a second or two. “What happened between the two of you?” She shrugged when Alex looked over at her. “You don’t ever really talk about him,” she pointed out.

“Yeah, well.” Alex cleared her throat. “We met at Quantico. Well, on the plane _to_ Quantico.”

“Alexandra Parrish, you sly dog,” Saito teased.

“Yeah.” Alex laughed quietly. “Anyway. Things worked for a while, then they didn’t. When it came time for graduation, he ended up on one side of the country, I ended up on the other. I didn’t want to deal with the distance, so I ended things. Haven’t spoken to him since.”

“Why not?” Saito asked curiously.

Alex shrugged. “I wanted to be an agent, not a wife. I never really saw how anyone could be both, or even why they’d _want_ to be both. And by the time I realized it didn’t really have to be a choice between the two, it was too late.”

“Oh.” Saito sighed. “Sorry, Parrish. That’s a tough hand to be dealt.”

“Brought it on myself,” Alex pointed out, glancing in the rearview mirror. “Subject change?”

“Absolutely,” Saito agreed. “Will you _please_ come dress-shopping with me this weekend?”

“I refuse to go _anywhere_ that is featured on a reality show,” Alex returned honestly.

“Oh, come on,” Saito huffed. “Kleinfeld’s is huge. We’re not going to be stalked by a camera. Plus, you’d be saving a life. My future mother-in-law is coming along, and if _Haha_ doesn’t kill her, then there’s a chance that I _might_.”

“Fine,” Alex conceded with a sigh. “I’ll check my schedule.”

“Great,” Saito replied cheerfully. “You’ll love it, I promise.”

“Yeah,” Alex agreed sarcastically. “It’ll be the highlight of my week.”

 

-o-o-o-o-

 

Sometimes, the things that should’ve made their job easier actually made it more difficult. Like, for example, when their prime suspect turned himself in without providing them with literally any information that could help build a case against him.

“That guy is hiding something,” Saito murmured, staring at him through one-way glass. “Don’t have any idea what it is yet, but it’s definitely _something_.”

“Yeah. You know what? We ran with this lead because we pulled Gaetano’s phone records.”

“We did,” Saito agreed slowly. “What’s that got to do with anything?”

“We pulled his phone records, and we found that this guy, Barrera, made, what, half a dozen calls to Gaetano in the hour leading up to his death,” Alex continued. “Now, I don’t know if I’m in the minority here, but I wouldn’t be calling up my soon-to-be murder victim so many times. I’d know how it’d look.”

“You’re suggesting they weren’t enemies. They were lovers,” Saito realized.

“Yup,” Alex confirmed. 

“What about Viviana, though? I mean, how’s she involved in all of this?” 

“She and Barrera were best friends growing up,” Alex pointed out. “And he comes from the sort of family where being gay is considered a thousand times worse than being a criminal. Like they have a foot to stand on when it comes to morality,” she scoffed, then sobered. “She wanted to protect him, Han. That’s why she went along with all the rumors.” 

“Makes sense, I suppose.” Saito blew out a slow breath. “So, that makes this thing between Gaetano and Barrera some sort of enemies-to-lovers thing.”

“It’s like Romeo and Juliet all over again,” Alex agreed. “Except they’re both Romeos.”

“Yeah, got that part.” Saito sighed. “Why confess?”

“I don’t know,” Alex admitted. “But if we can prove Barrera wasn’t there, we’ll blow this case wide open, give ourselves a chance to find the real killer.”

“Okay.” Saito ran a hand through her short hair. “All right. I’ll go see if we can pull traffic cam footage, get him an alibi that way.”

“Thank you,” Alex sighed, staring back through the glass. The look on Barrera’s face was pained enough to make it impossible not to look away.

After Saito moved away, Alex removed her phone from the pocket of her jacket, quickly dialing a familiar number. After the first few rings, the person on the other end of the line picked up.

“Hey, Shelby,” she greeted her best friend. “Look, I know you’re probably busy, but I need a favor, if it’s possible.”

“ _Sure_ ,” Shelby agreed without hesitation. “ _What is it?_ ”

“Do you and Caleb still talk to Ryan?” Alex sighed when her friend fell silent. “I’m not going to be mad, Wyatt, I promise.”

“ _Fine. Yes, we talk to him sometimes_ ,” Shelby admitted. “ _He’s a good mentor when it comes to this whole agent thing. Why do you ask?_ ”

“I want to get in touch,” Alex informed her, causing her friend to fall silent once again. She sighed. “Yeah, I know. It’s crazy, isn’t it? I just – I don’t want to have any regrets, Shelby. I don’t want to go on with my life, knowing I never had the chance to love him out in the open because I was never willing to _take_ it.” She glanced into the interrogation room once again. “There isn’t a soul on this planet I’d wish that sort of pain upon,” she murmured.

“ _I’ll text you his new number_ ,” Shelby said after a moment. “ _But Alex? Please don’t break his heart again. You’re my friend, you know you are, but so is he. He almost lost it when he lost you the first time. I don’t think my liver could handle getting him through it again._ ”

Alex couldn’t help but laugh quietly at that one. “I won’t,” she swore. “I promise. I think he and I have done enough of that over the years.” She paused for a moment, waiting for Shelby to respond. “Hey, Wyatt, you still with me?”

“ _Yeah_ ,” Shelby promised. “ _I’m just in the middle of the bullpen, here. I don’t want to squeal in front of my boss.”_

Alex smirked. “Understandable.” She glanced up when Saito barged back into the room, gesturing wildly. “Hey, Shelby, I’m going to have to let you go. Yeah, yeah, everything’s fine. Something’s come up at work, that’s all. We’ll talk later.” She ended the call, then stared pointedly at her partner. “Did you find him an alibi?”

“I did,” Saito assured her breathlessly. “And I also found the real killer. You’re not going to believe this.”

“Oh, how I wish I was still green enough for that to be true,” Alex sighed. “Where are we headed?”

“Back to Bay Ridge,” Saito informed her grimly. “To the Gaetano family home.”

Alex nodded morosely. “Yeah,” she sighed. “Somehow, I always figured that’s where we’d end up when all was said and done. Let’s get this over with.”

 

-o-o-o-o-

Giovanni Gaetano, Sr. didn’t have much to say for himself when they showed up on his doorstep half an hour later. “He wasn’t fit to be my heir,” he muttered as Saito cuffed him. “He was an abomination.”

“He was your _son_ ,” Alex reminded him, disgusted. “It wasn’t your job to agree with him. All you had to do was _love_ him. And you couldn’t even do _that_.” She shook her head, glanced at Saito. “Read him his rights. I can’t.” She glanced away, making it clear to her partner that it was far from a lie. She literally couldn’t. She’d knock the man on his ass if she had to stand there with him even a second longer.

“Yeah,” Saito sighed, turning back to their victim’s father (and really, wasn’t that the saddest thing about this whole thing?). “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney…”

Alex tried to ignore the look on Aurora Gaetano’s face as they took her father away. She failed miserably, of course, but she supposed it was worth something that she’d at least made a valiant effort.

Gaetano’s confession didn’t take much time to get through. He and one of his buddies had caught Giovanni on his way to meet with Barrera. They’d interrogated him, then beaten him, then left him to bleed in the street. He suffered for hours before he drew his final breath. The confession took five minutes, but being there, in that small space with a man like Gaetano, made it feel more like five lifetimes.

“So,” Saito sighed once they’d arrived back in the bullpen. “You going to get started on the paperwork for this one, or…”

“I’m going to go home, collapse into bed, and sleep until the phone rings again,” Alex told her honestly. “Might buy a half-dozen pizzas, too, stress-eat with _The Bachelorette_ playing in the background. It’s been one of those days. You?”

“Dinner with Gabe,” Saito replied. “Call if you need anything, okay?”

“’Course,” Alex promised. “Same to you.”

“’Course,” Saito returned, smiling sadly. “Take care of yourself, Parrish.”

“You, too, Saito.” Alex drew in a deep breath as she watched her partner leave, then removed her phone from the pocket of her jacket and dialed the number Shelby had texted her. It rang only once before the man on the other end of the line picked up.

“ _Hello_?” Special Agent Ryan Booth answered confusedly. “ _Who is this_?”

“Hi, Ryan,” Alex murmured, the events of the day hitting her at that exact moment and forcing her to blink back tears. “I’m sorry to call you. I know it’s probably late, you’re probably busy…”

“ _No_ ,” he rushed to assure her. “ _No, it’s fine. I’m actually at a conference this week, in New_ _York, so…_ ” he trailed off. “ _Is everything okay?_ ”

“Not really,” Alex admitted, laughing humorlessly. “I just had to arrest a man for killing his own son. Well, Saito actually did the arresting. I think she was a little scared I’d kill _him_.”

“ _Wow_ ,” Ryan murmured. “ _I’m sorry, Alex. That’s – that’s rough. Why did he…”_

“Giovanni was gay,” Alex informed him shakily. “His father didn’t think he was fit to inherit the family business. Which, by the way, is the mob.”

“ _Giovanni – you’re talking about the Gaetano crime family_ ,” Ryan realized. “ _I saw that on the news this morning. Are you saying Senior was responsible for his own kid’s murder? I – that’s a dick move_.”

“Yeah.” Alex sniffled, not realizing until she did that she was crying. “I, um, that’s not why I called, though. Well, it is, but it isn’t.”

“ _Okay_ ,” Ryan replied slowly. “ _I’m sorry, I’m trying to keep up, but that makes no sense_.”

“I called because I just – I had to witness what it looks like, choosing to love someone when it’s too late,” Alex explained.  “And, selfish as it might be, I don’t want to go through that.”

“ _Alex, what are you saying?_ ” Ryan asked confusedly, hopefully, sounding like Alex felt.

“I’m saying, you’re in New York,” Alex murmured. “And I’m in New York. And maybe, just maybe, you’re right. Maybe this is fate.” She smiled. “In fact, I’m pretty sure it is.”

Ryan fell silent for a few moments. “ _So, if I ask you to dinner, you’re not going to say no?_ ”

“No, Ryan,” she laughed freely. “I’m not going to say no.”

(It was in that moment that, without even really being fully aware of it, they started all over again. For several years, it was the best moment of Alex’s life. And the story of how it was replaced, well, that’s a story for another time.)

**Author's Note:**

> I've been rewatching the show, which led to a lot of writing. I've already started on the sequel, which I'll try to have up soon. I hope you enjoyed!


End file.
